Dear Frankie (2004)

A few years before he girded is loins to lead the Spartan armies in 300, Gerard Butler revealed his softer side playing a good hearted stranger in the appealing romantic comedy Dear Frankie.

Dear Frankie tells the story of Lizzie, a single mom (the delightful Emily Mortimer) struggling to raise her hearing impaired son in a working class neighborhood in Glasgow. The fragile shell she has built around their lives gets a shock when a little white lie Lizzie has been telling her son comes back to haunt her. Seems that instead of admitting that his abusive father abandoned him, Lizzie told young Frankie his dad was a sailor out at sea, going so far as to send detailed letters from the fictitious father to the boy telling him all about his travels.

One day Frankie sees a photo in the local paper announcing that his “father’s” ship is coming in, forcing his mom to frantically find a man to play the part of Frankie’s dad for a few days.

It may sound a wee bit preposterous, but the cast is certainly good enough to make it work. Mortimer gives Lizzie the perfect blend of toughness and vulnerability she needs to gain our sympathy, and Jack McElhone is heartbreaking without being too cute as Frankie.

The real gem of the film, though, is Butler whose resume up to this film was filled primarily with bad action movies (Laura Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life) and even worse horror flicks (Dracula 2000). He’s thoroughly charming – and more importantly thoroughly believable -- as the stranger who comes into Frankie’s life.

Starring Gerard Butler, Emily Mortimer.

IMDB Site.